The present invention relates to telecommunications systems such as telephone networks comprising a plurality of interconnected telephone exchanges and communication there-between.
Conventional telephone networks are fully-meshed in that each trunk exchange has a direct connection to every other trunk exchange. Traffic levels in telephone networks are increasing, leading to a continued need to increase the capacity of such networks. To achieve this, exchanges need to be enlarged and new exchanges installed. In fully-meshed networks, a significant number of additional network interconnections are needed with each new exchange, leading to further increases in the number of ports needed per exchange. This results in less efficient networks with costs per unit of traffic increasing.
By using the present invention it is possible to provide a more efficient and more easily configurable network.
The present invention provides a telecommunications system comprising one or more cross-connects and a plurality of telephone exchanges wherein two or more of the telephone exchanges are arranged to communicate with each other via the one or more cross-connects.
In a preferred embodiment the invention provides a telecommunications system wherein communication via the one or more cross-connects uses asynchronous transfer mode (ATM).
In a further embodiment the present invention provides a telecommunications system wherein the communication uses ATM Virtual Paths (VPs) and/or ATM Virtual Circuits.
The present invention also provides an adapter for providing the above telephone exchanges with a means of inter-communication of traffic via the one or more cross-connects wherein the adapter comprises means for converting the traffic between packetized and non-packetized form.